The romantic comedy “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” touched hearts all over the world when it came out back in 2002 with actress Nia Vardalos playing the shy and motivated main character, “Tula Portakolis.”
The film focuses on themes of love and coming together and the movie did just that for Vardalos and actor, Rob Riggle.
Vardalos said she had no idea the impact the movie would have, the doors it would open for her, and the friendships that have been made since.
When Vardalos became a co-writer on a film that Riggle was starring in, the two got to talking. The “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” actress stated that Riggle had come up to her and revealed his favorite scene with her brothers and cousin in the movie and the rest is history.
The duo has come together once again to create their own podcast, “Motivated.”
“Rob and I realized we had so many comedy friends in common,” the actress explained. “We started to do these characters on set, these motivational speakers and we kept doing these characters until somebody said we should write it out.”
From there, the two collaborated and created the motivational speaker series.
“It came from a place of improv and it just made us laugh all day long and we couldn’t stop doing the bit,” revealed Riggle.”We did what any responsible comedians would do, we wrote it down and we turned it into something.”
As the executive producers, they contacted everyone they know, gathering some big-list names such as Rachel Dratch, Tom Hanks, Ana Gasteyer, and more
“It’s going to be a great series with great people,” said Riggle.
“Motivated” premieres on Sept. 22.
This segment aired on the KTLA 5 Morning News on Sept. 20, 2022.
